No damage or casualties have been reported in the fire exchange.
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Three rockets were fired from southern Lebanon and were believed to have fallen in open territory in the North. The IDF responded with artillery fire.
The rockets were fired from the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre in retaliation against Israeli shelling on the southern towns of Qolaile and al-Mansouri, a source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity, adding that Israeli warplanes are still carrying mock raids over the region.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity under briefing guidelines, said Hezbollah has a limited presence on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, and its efforts there have been focused primarily on aiding Assad’s forces against the advances of various rebel groups.
The Shia militant group Hezbollah blamed Israel for the air strike.
The test comes amid soaring tensions between Israel and Hezbollah following the killing of one of its fighters, Samir Kantar on Sunday.
UNIFIL, the United Nations force charged with overseeing security in south Lebanon, released a statement saying it had stepped up patrols along the border between Israel and Lebanon in a bid to tamp down on cross-border violence.
A Hezbollah commander who spent three decades in an Israeli prison has been killed in Damascas.
The 54-year-old was killed on Saturday night “when the Zionist enemy planes bombed the building where he lived in Jaramana”, southeast of Damascus, the Shiite militant group said in a statement.
Official Syrian media said an Israeli aerial strike hit a six-storey residential building in the Jaramana district. In response, Israel fired at least 10 missiles at southern Lebanon.
“The Israeli strike dented the new sense of security on the part of Mr. Assad’s supporters that came after Russian Federation began its direct military intervention in the conflict in late September, using its air power to shore up Mr. Assad and his Hezbollah allies”, noted The New York Times.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a Syria-based Palestinian terror group, took responsibility for the rocket fire, according to Lebanese media cited by Israel’s Channel 2. As the attack unfolded, the girl’s mother, Smadar Haran, hid inside a crawl space inside their home and accidentally smothered their crying 2-year-old daughter, fearing Kantar would find them.
Israel has formally kept out of Syria’s civil war which started nearly five years ago but has bombed Hezbollah targets there without publicly acknowledging these sorties.
Following Israel’s 2006 war against Lebanon, Kuntar’s release was secured.
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Syrian Prime Minister Wael Halaqi said targeting Kantar was equivalent to “targeting the axis of resistance”, referring to Syria and its allies.
